Meeting of the Parliament 04 June 2015
I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to this debate, as alcohol is a matter of great and on-going concern to many of the constituents of all members. Alcohol misuse and its consequence for health and community safety remain a significant challenge, not only in Scotland but throughout the UK.
We all know how important relationships are. They are central to our lives and important to our wellbeing. We have to look at our country’s relationship with alcohol, and I am sure that we can all agree that it is a relationship that is severely harming health and wellbeing, affecting our communities and undermining our potential as a nation of individuals.
The people of Scotland have the ability and ambition to lead in plenty aspects of global affairs, but the current alcohol statistics in Scotland leave us nothing to be proud of. Alcohol consumption in Scotland has reduced since 2009, but alcohol sales remain higher than in 1994. Scotland’s consumption of alcohol was twice the world average in 2010 and well above the European regional average.
Alcohol-related hospital admissions in Scotland are four times higher than they were in the early 1980s. That is on average 700 hospital admissions as well as 20 deaths that are directly related to alcohol each week. Young people are under a lot of pressure to start drinking at a young age. Alcohol today is affordable, available and heavily marketed. As a result, young people are growing up in a pro-alcohol society where drinking is seen as the norm. We should therefore begin by denormalising alcohol for children and teenagers. Experimenting with alcohol is a phase that many go through, but the age at which young Scottish people start experimenting is younger than for our European partners, and their use of alcohol is much more frequent.
As a mother of three children, two of whom are teenagers, I cautiously welcome the data from the Scottish schools adolescent lifestyle and substance use survey, which reports a substantial reduction in alcohol consumption among young people since 2010. The survey shows that 19 per cent of 15-year-olds reported that they had drunk alcohol in the past week, which is down from 34 per cent in 2010, and that 4 per cent of 13-year-olds reported that they had drunk alcohol in the past week, which is down from 44 per cent in 2010. Those are still staggering and worrying statistics that need to be addressed so that we can move forward without alcohol being a huge component of young people’s lives in Scotland.
It is our underlying duty to help anyone who has an issue with alcohol, but we need to implement tougher measures as well as more education on the issues for our young people, so that we can break the cycle at a young age, as that is where the problems start. Teenage drinking can cause both immediate and long-term health problems, with most of the admissions of teenagers into hospital resulting from alcohol consumption. Although that is the immediate impact, heavy regular drinking in a person’s younger years can lead to the development of chronic diseases such as liver cirrhosis.
Our drinking habits have to change, because if we condone that behaviour and do not make substantial attempts to change it, we will be left with a chronically ill young adult population. The earlier that teenagers are exposed to alcohol, the more likely they are to face challenges in later years. Therefore, we must address the problem at its root, and provide more support and education in schools on the harmful side effects of alcohol consumption.
For a long time, there have also been concerns about the possible effects on children’s attitudes towards alcohol that exposure to alcohol advertising might have. Along with the BMA, I consider that we should restrict the advertising of alcoholic drinks. In particular, alcohol advertising should be banned near places that children use, such as schools, as well as at events targeted at children, in order to reduce that exposure.
Alcohol consumption cannot go on at the current rate. The strain that alcohol puts on public services is costly and time consuming. If we could work together to safeguard our population from alcohol, we would have fewer alcohol-related challenges. Members from across all political parties are determined to tackle Scotland’s drink problem. However, in order to be successful, a shift in Scotland’s culture is essential. We must contribute to delivering that change right away.
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